Chapter 14
I wondered what Wolffe’s answer meant to my question about Kerry Bostwick’s solution, but I didn’t have to wait long to find
out. I saw President Hannister lean forward and say, “Kerry, what are you proposing?”
Kerry waved his hand around the table and said, “We’re sitting on the finest manhunting organization on earth. Use the Taskforce.”
Palmer said, “No way. That’s throwing good money after bad. The Taskforce is the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.
We need to figure out a way to get the Ghost’s face plastered in every post office in America. Freeze him from moving.”
Kerry said, “We’re already past that. The Ghost didn’t do this on his own. He had help, and that help had a plan. He’s already
moving, and they’ve already thought through how to hide him. Yeah, we can freeze him from buying a bus ticket in person, but
we can’t stop whoever is helping him.”
Oglethorpe said, “The Taskforce can’t operate CONUS. It’s against the charter. They’re forbidden from executing missions on
US soil.”
Kerry ignored him, looking at the president and saying, “We created the charter. It’s not like it’s carved in stone inside the Ark of the Covenant. We can make an exception. We’ve done
it before.”
Palmer said, “That was because of extreme circumstances.”
Kerry let slip a wry smile and said, “I think we can optimistically call this an extreme situation.”
President Hannister said, “So you’re proposing targeting the Ghost with a Taskforce team?”
“Yes. This is what they do, and they routinely do it clandestinely in nonpermissive environments. Running operations in the United States will be much easier than missions we’ve conducted in Syria or Qatar.”
Hannister looked directly at the camera and said, “Wolffe? You up?”
Wolffe said, “I’m here, sir.”
“You’re tracking the conversation?”
“Yes, sir. And I agree.”
“Who do you have on short notice to execute? Is there a team available?”
“Yes. I’ve already alerted Pike Logan’s team as a precaution.”
At the mention of my name, Palmer exploded, saying, “No way! That’s the last thing we need. Get someone else.”
Man, what an asshole. I hated that guy, and the feeling was apparently mutual. Palmer turned to the president and said, “You turn Pike loose and
he’ll leave flaming wreckage everywhere he goes. We may as well put out a press release saying, ‘There’s a terrorist we’ve
kept in a secret prison against all US laws and that guy who just left a crater in your town is looking for him.’ ”
That’s enough. I stood up, and Wolffe glared at me, signaling me not to say a word.
President Hannister said, “Wolffe? What about that?”
“Sir, I don’t have another team that’s available on short notice, and Pike’s got something that no other team in the Taskforce
has.”
“What’s that?”
“He’s the one who caught him. He knows more about how the Ghost thinks than anyone.”
That fact held some weight. There was a little bit more squabbling, but eventually President Hannister cut it off. He let
Palmer run out some steam, castigating me as worse than Thanos, and then formally tasked us with the mission, saying we would
have the full resources of the US government. Honestly, the statement sounded great, but I’d heard such pronouncements before
and didn’t put a lot of stock in it.
Wolffe closed out the VTC and I said, “So you figured this was where it was headed, huh?”
“Yeah, but honestly, I thought I would have to be the one to suggest it. It was a stroke of luck that it came from a Council member and not the Taskforce commander.”
Knuckles said, “What about the elephant in the room? We didn’t address that with the Council.”
Veep said, “No way did someone in the Taskforce help spring the Ghost. I don’t see it.”
Knuckles said, “Well, he didn’t spring himself. He had help, and that help had help. Somebody had to feed his ambushers the time and location, and the only people who had that information were
right here, in the Taskforce.”
I said, “They’re not the only people.”
Wolffe shook his head and said, “Knuckles is right. I don’t like it any more than you, but the leak has to be from inside.”
I said, “The Ghost knew.”
Wolffe said, “Yeah, but he had no way to communicate. He had no phones or computer access to the outside world. His computer
time was throttled, and everything he looked at online was fed into the NOC here, like all the other detainees in the Cloud.
We’ve already scrubbed it. There’s nothing there.”
“All I’m saying is we don’t have all the facts.” I held up my hands, saying, “Anyway, it’s irrelevant to me. I agree the odds
are we have a mole, and that may be the elephant in the room, but my team aren’t elephant wranglers.”
I looked at Wolffe and said, “That’s your job. I’ll go after the Ghost, but if there’s a Taskforce traitor doing pay for play,
that’s you.”
He said, “Agreed. We’re already working on it. What’s your first step?”
“I’m assuming we can root around as some anonymous Homeland Security agents? Enough horsepower to get in the door, but nothing
firm as far as a specific office?”
We needed some type of cover. We couldn’t very well go into police precincts and other government offices asking questions as Taskforce operators, and the Department of Homeland Security would be perfect.
It was a legitimate federal law enforcement agency, but nobody really knew what the hell it did.
“Yeah, I can get DHS credentials.”
“Okay. First step is to go out to Utah and check the ambush site. Knuckles and Brett, that’s you. I don’t expect we’ll find
anything more than the police have already reported, but check it out.”
Knuckles nodded, and I said, “Focus on the widow.”
Brett snapped his head to me and I said, “I know it’s not what you want to do, but if Marley talked to anyone, he would have
talked to his family. Maybe she knows something she hasn’t told the police.”
I turned to Veep and said, “You get the shit job. Stay here and act as liaison for anything we need to leverage outside of
the Taskforce. DOJ, local police, whatever.”
He said, “I can do that with you. All I need is a phone.”
I shook my head, “I know POTUS said we’d have full support, but I’m going to need someone here pushing for us when that support
runs into a brick wall.” I flicked my head to Wolffe and said, “I can’t be calling the commander every time I need help with
some dickhead government official.”
Wolffe chuckled and said, “What about you?”
“You have the location of the RV folks who found the car?”
He nodded, and I said, “That’s where Jennifer and I are headed.”